A Theologian Considers the Consequence of Relativity on a God Who Is Light
Revision 2
You flung stars like fireflies
to burn holes into night’s hunger,
to ignite the shine of galaxies;
dust infused with the brilliance
of Your image.
You, the cloudless day.
Those clouds now forgotten, a judgment
beyond remembrance, as the water
that rose. The ocean does not inhabit
the shell, but each still speaks
in bloodless whispers
of the drowned lisping
toward that final day
when all shall be put to rest
beneath that Tree
brought into uniform motion
with Your presence.
Our fall,
a sacrifice of light
speed, darkness the event
horizon that made You appear
to slow down.
The days drone to millennia.
Still You retreat
trapped between
our seconds.
The sheen on our eyes shifts
as we long to resynchronize
with the limitless.
to speed past the horn’s crystal
blast for sound only came first, once.
Our mistake was to believe
that eternity is endless
days, rather than
immutable velocity.
~~~
Edits from feedback: The second "to" on line two is provisional. I want to look at it for a bit. I moved it back.
Revision
You flung stars like fireflies
to burn holes into night’s hunger,
to ignite the shine of galaxies;
dust infused with the brilliance
of Your image.
You, the cloudless day—
clouds now forgotten, a judgment
beyond remembrance, as the water
that rose. The ocean does not inhabit
the shell, but each one still speaks
in bloodless whispers
of the drowned lisping
toward that final day
when all shall be put to rest
beneath that Tree
brought into uniform motion
with Your presence.
Our fall,
a sacrifice of light
speed, darkness the event
horizon that made You appear
to slow down.
The days become millennia.
Still You retreat
trapped between
our seconds.
We long to resynchronize
with the limitless.
The sheen on our eyes shifts
to speed past the horn’s crystal
blast for sound only came first, once.
Our mistake was to believe
that eternity is endless
days, rather than
immutable velocity.
~~~
Original
You flung the stars like fire-
flies to burn holes
into night’s hunger,
to ignite the shine of galaxies;
dust infused with
the brilliance of your image.
You, the cloudless day—
clouds an afterthought,
a judgement—set aside
the final day to put all at rest
beneath the Tree brought into uniform
motion with your presence.
Our fall,
a sacrifice of light
speed, darkness the event
horizon that made you appear
to slow down.
The days become millennia.
Still you retreat
trapped between
our seconds.
We long to resynchronize
with the limitless.
The sheen on our eyes shifts
to speed past
the horn’s crystal
blast for sound only came first, once.
Our mistake was to believe
that eternity is endless
days, rather than
immutable velocity.
~~~
(Not that I expect anyone to read all the footnotes but I'll leave them there if anyone is interested how this came together)
Footnotes:
Gen. 1:1-3, 14, 26; 1 Jn. 1:5; Gen. 2:2; Heb. 4:1-3a; Gen. 3:6-8; 2 Pet. 3:8-9a; 1 Cor. 15:50-52; Rev. 21:23; Rev. 22:5
The speed of light is the same for all observers.
The laws of physics are the same for all uniformly moving observers.
"Uniformly" = "with a constant velocity"
Any uniformly moving observer can consider themselves to be "at rest".
The speed of light is a Universal Constant.
Observers moving relative to each other:
--Do not measure the same times.
--Disagree on what events occur simultaneously.
Space and Time are relative.
United by light into Spacetime.
Only spacetime has an absolute reality independent of the observer.
Revision 2
You flung stars like fireflies
to burn holes into night’s hunger,
to ignite the shine of galaxies;
dust infused with the brilliance
of Your image.
You, the cloudless day.
Those clouds now forgotten, a judgment
beyond remembrance, as the water
that rose. The ocean does not inhabit
the shell, but each still speaks
in bloodless whispers
of the drowned lisping
toward that final day
when all shall be put to rest
beneath that Tree
brought into uniform motion
with Your presence.
Our fall,
a sacrifice of light
speed, darkness the event
horizon that made You appear
to slow down.
The days drone to millennia.
Still You retreat
trapped between
our seconds.
The sheen on our eyes shifts
as we long to resynchronize
with the limitless.
to speed past the horn’s crystal
blast for sound only came first, once.
Our mistake was to believe
that eternity is endless
days, rather than
immutable velocity.
~~~
Edits from feedback: The second "to" on line two is provisional. I want to look at it for a bit. I moved it back.
Revision
You flung stars like fireflies
to burn holes into night’s hunger,
to ignite the shine of galaxies;
dust infused with the brilliance
of Your image.
You, the cloudless day—
clouds now forgotten, a judgment
beyond remembrance, as the water
that rose. The ocean does not inhabit
the shell, but each one still speaks
in bloodless whispers
of the drowned lisping
toward that final day
when all shall be put to rest
beneath that Tree
brought into uniform motion
with Your presence.
Our fall,
a sacrifice of light
speed, darkness the event
horizon that made You appear
to slow down.
The days become millennia.
Still You retreat
trapped between
our seconds.
We long to resynchronize
with the limitless.
The sheen on our eyes shifts
to speed past the horn’s crystal
blast for sound only came first, once.
Our mistake was to believe
that eternity is endless
days, rather than
immutable velocity.
~~~
Original
You flung the stars like fire-
flies to burn holes
into night’s hunger,
to ignite the shine of galaxies;
dust infused with
the brilliance of your image.
You, the cloudless day—
clouds an afterthought,
a judgement—set aside
the final day to put all at rest
beneath the Tree brought into uniform
motion with your presence.
Our fall,
a sacrifice of light
speed, darkness the event
horizon that made you appear
to slow down.
The days become millennia.
Still you retreat
trapped between
our seconds.
We long to resynchronize
with the limitless.
The sheen on our eyes shifts
to speed past
the horn’s crystal
blast for sound only came first, once.
Our mistake was to believe
that eternity is endless
days, rather than
immutable velocity.
~~~
(Not that I expect anyone to read all the footnotes but I'll leave them there if anyone is interested how this came together)
Footnotes:
Gen. 1:1-3, 14, 26; 1 Jn. 1:5; Gen. 2:2; Heb. 4:1-3a; Gen. 3:6-8; 2 Pet. 3:8-9a; 1 Cor. 15:50-52; Rev. 21:23; Rev. 22:5
The speed of light is the same for all observers.
The laws of physics are the same for all uniformly moving observers.
"Uniformly" = "with a constant velocity"
Any uniformly moving observer can consider themselves to be "at rest".
The speed of light is a Universal Constant.
Observers moving relative to each other:
--Do not measure the same times.
--Disagree on what events occur simultaneously.
Space and Time are relative.
United by light into Spacetime.
Only spacetime has an absolute reality independent of the observer.
The secret of poetry is cruelty.--Jon Anderson